In ancient Rome, the aediles were magistrates in charge of public buildings, streets, etc. Among the French the term is still used as a fancy way to refer to municipal officers.
"Thunder against, with respect to street-paving: 'What are our aediles thinking about?'"
Gustave Flaubert, Dictionary of Platitudes (1880).
[Translation by J. I. Rodale (1954).]
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